I Will Still Be an Introvert After the Pandemic
The pandemic isn’t over, but right now feels like a different stage from last fall, something liminal where I’m hopeful that I’ll have a vaccine by the end of summer and may feel comfortable taking baby steps back towards rejoining the world. I am not the sort who will go from home-for-over-a-year to dining-at-a-restaurant in one fell swoop.
Refinery29 had an article recently checking in on introverts. I have been told that the pandemic is easier for me because I don’t like the leave the house anyway. That is true—I mean, the not leaving my house part. But I do enjoy seeing friends and family. And, at the very least, I enjoy large doses of alone time, something I haven’t gotten in over a year.
I can go in the bedroom and close the door, but I am cognizant that there are still people around. I am someone whose favourite sound is silence, so this year has been both easy and hard. Easy because I recognize my privilege, and hard because everyone’s life changed. And change is hard.
I draw my energy from that alone time. It powers me through all social interactions, which are still happening under my definition of a social interaction. I may not be leaving the house, but I am having more Zoom calls or phone calls than ever. I spent this year talking to people more than usual, it just wasn’t face-to-face. My online book club went from every other week to every week. I added new friends, all met in virtual spaces, while keeping in closer contact than I ever have with others.
I thought the article was interesting because it talked about the ways people changed. And I definitely feel like a different person during this pandemic than I was beforehand. (Who was that woman who thought nothing of packing in with people on the Metro?) But I’m still an introvert. Like Cats, now and forever.
Are you still the same—introverted or extroverted—though the pandemic?
3 comments
I am the same as I ever was, except with masks and more hand washing. I used to hate hand sanitizer, because I don’t like the smell of alcohol. But I’ve gotten used to it this year. We don’t eat restaurant food any more (well, once in a while. Like 3 times since last March). And it’s been so long since I got a pedicure. I guess that’s the thing that’s changed – I don’t mind either of those things.
I am still an introvert but I really miss my alone time. I love my family but the pressures of keeping everything going for all of us had been hard. I recognize I am so privileged however. I feel disconnected, too. I miss feeling like I’m a part of something bigger which (aside from the obvious pandemic), I haven’t felt in a year because I’m a part of my family unit right now and that is all. No school community to speak of. Even our Girl Scout troop meets virtually which isn’t the same at all.
I am so very much more introverted. I’m normally shy, but I like being around the people I like- and I like going to dinners, and parties and things like that. Having spent 55 weeks avoiding people I’m slowly losing my mind. And, as someone who has never liked talking on the phone that just has felt like added torture rather than a way to connect. The irony? I’m on the phone in general a lot for work and very good at it, I just despise it as a method of communication. LOL